Chapter 54: Perceiving the Truth

Looking at the surroundings around him, he started to conjure a crude magic circle within his Spell Core, consuming only a small part of his SP due to the upgrades to his SP Storage and Energy Core.

"[Spirit Detection (Wind Variant)]!"

Whoosh!

This was the first idea that came into Aurus' mind after fully understanding the current illusion world he was in. Other than [Soul Perception I] that allowed him to see, hear, and sense everything around him, [Spirit Detection (Wind Variant)] was the only other skill...or rather, spell that allowed him to sense anomalies within his surroundings. To be honest, the radius of detection for this spell exceeded the range of his [Soul Perception I] skill, but when compared to the other spells he might learn in the future that could also detect anything within a set radius, it was incomparably small.

Nonetheless, it was the only other spell he had to detect. Closing his sense of vision and rely on the effect of the spell, he noticed that there was no anomaly at all on the ground he was currently standing on...well, lying on. Opening his sense of vision, he couldn't help but frown inwardly. "Well that's weird, there was a mirage of a large village here a while ago. How could I not sense any anomaly here?"

Thinking about it further, Aurus couldn't help but feel that he was thinking about it the wrong way. He decided to not rely on the memories he had about the game, but instead, relied on the memories he had on what he learned in school.

Although he was only 16 years old before he died, the lessons he learned throughout school also tackled mirages, hence he tried to recall the meaning of a mirage.

"A mirage...is an illusion in itself according to science. It is something that appears to be there while not being there due to light rays being refracted at a weird angle, displacing the view towards a farther distance."

"Hmm..." Aurus thought about the definition of mirage a bit more and got to a conclusion. "Ah. To probably escape this illusion world, I must find the origin of this mirage."

Realizing this, he couldn't help but feel despondent at his hopes of escaping this world at a fast speed.

"Mirages appear extremely far from the origin of their view, which means that this world is extremely large. I've traversed towards the boundary before, but it might be because the distance between me and the boundary I went to is extremely short when compared to the other boundaries, hence taking less time."

"If only I had a way to see where the light particles that make up the mirage come from," Aurus couldn't help but sigh in despair. He tried using [Spirit Detection (Wind Variant)] a few more times, but only resulting to naught. He still saw no anomaly around him at all, which couldn't help but let him feel that he was going to take an extremely long time to escape this world.

Slightly going crazy at his current situation, Aurus couldn't help but shout out at the loudest voice he could muster from his soul, "If only I can see everything!"

Bang!

Screaming at the loudest he could made him feel light-headed, but it sparked a bit of inspiration into Aurus' mind, an idea that instantly blossomed after remembering the description of a certain skill he had.

Although he was uncertain that the description he remembered was true, he had to give it a shot, or else he would truly take a long time to escape.

"I-Identify [Soul Perception I]," Aurus commanded, his voice slightly stuttering at the fear of his hopes being crushed.

Ding!

The ever familiar sound he would hear when the system followed his orders, it felt like a judge's gavel passing out judgement to him at this current moment. Slowly raising his field of vision to look at the screen that appeared in front of him, he read all of the words written on it one by one.

"Yes!" Aurus couldn't help but shout out in joy that his hopes might not be crushed after all!

________

[Soul Perception I] (Level 1/5)

Experience: 9/10

A skill obtained by those who are gifted in the soul, this skill allows the user to sense EVERYTHING in their surroundings within a set radius.

Current radius: 5 meters

________

The word that he wanted to see became emphasized once he read through the contents of the screen. He knew that the descriptions of the skills would always be true, hence he knew that his idea would be feasible.

Looking at the surroundings around him, he shouted out loud in his mind, "[Soul Perception I]!"

Whoosh!

Although he shouted the name of the skill out in his mind, thus activating this passive skill, there was no difference to his surroundings at all. After seeing that there was no difference, Aurus then calmly changed his mindset towards the surroundings, thinking that he could see the direction of every light particle that went towards his way.

And then...there came the difference.

In an instant after changing his mindset, if his previous view was compared to looking at the surroundings like a normal person, then the current view he could see was comparable to the sight of a cultivator from those eastern fantasy novels. Although the radius of what he could see was now limited by the limits of his passive skill, it was nonetheless extremely useful as he could see the faint traces of the trajectories of the various light particles that made up the mirage that he saw a while ago.

Ding!

Unexpectedly, a notification screen appeared in front of his field of vision, to which Aurus prompted looking at before he followed the trajectories of the light particles.

After reading the content of the notification screen, he couldn't help but feel happy as he said to himself, "Success!"

'A secret function of the passive skill [Soul Perception I] has been discovered!'

'The description of [Soul Perception I] has been changed to accommodate this secret function.'

'[Soul Perception I] has leveled up.'

In an instant, the radius of what he could see in his current mode of vision was increased, making him feel that this skill was going to be extremely useful after he maxed its level and evolved it into a higher form.

Looking at the specific trajectories of the light particles that made up the mirage he previously saw, he then casted [Gale Hover], making him gradually float off the ground, and then following the trajectory of the light particles towards its origin.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

With his movement speed being boosted by 150%, it took around half an hour to find the origin of the mirage, which was...definitely surprising to say the least.

"Eh?" With the gap between the origin of the mirage and his body being only a few meters apart, he could clearly see the origin of the mirage, which was...

A miniature village.

To be exact, it was more of a village model rather than a village made for dwarf people. Nonetheless, he shrugged off this idea after seeing that it was the origin and came closer to this miniature village.

Fwoosh!

In an instant, the miniature village gradually gave off a bright light that covered his body, making him laugh loudly at the current view.

"Finally! I can get out!"

Afterwards, Aurus disappeared into thin air within the illusion world, who was now definitely prepared to be teleported to another space.

...

Whoosh!

Just like magic, Aurus appeared in the center of the green jade hall that now felt nostalgic in front of him since he was now used to its current sight.

While he was basking in his happiness of getting out of the illusion world, the disembodied voice that always gave an announcement, didn't care about Aurus' current feelings as it resounded throughout the hall.

"The second world, Mirage, has been escaped from in a time of 32 minutes and 43 seconds. Score grade: A."

"As a reward, the experience needed to level up [Illusion Resistance] has been filled, thus levelling up [Illusion Resistance]."